Comparison of an imaging heel quantitative ultrasound device (DTU-one) with densitometric and ultrasonic measurements

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a new imaging ultrasound scanner for the heel, the DTU-one (Osteometer MediTech, Denmark), by comparing quan titative ultrasound (QUS) results with bone mineral density (BMD) of the he el and femur from dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), and by comparing the DTU -one with another QUS device, the UBA 575+. The regions of interest in the DXA heel scan were matched with the regions evaluated by the two QUS device s. 134 healthy and 16 osteoporotic women aged 30-84 years old were enrolled in the study. In vivo short-term precision of the DTU-one for broadband ul trasound attenuation (BUA) and speed of sound (SOS) was 2.9% and 0.1%, resp ectively, and long-term precision was 3.8% and 0.2%, respectively. Highest correlations (r) between QUS and BMD measurements were achieved when compar ing DTU-one results with BMD in matched regions of the DXA heel scan. Corre lation coefficients (r) were 0.81 for BUA and SOS. Highest correlations wit h the UBA 575+ were 0.68 and 0.72, respectively. The comparison of BMD in d ifferent femoral sites with BUA and SOS (DTU-one) varied from 0.62 to 0.69 when including the entire study population. The correlation between BMD val ues within different sites of the femur tended to be higher (from r=0.81 to 0.93). When comparing BUA with BUA and SOS with SOS on the two QUS devices , the absolute QUS Values differed significantly. However, correlations wer e relatively high, with 0.76 for BUA and 0.82 for SOS. In conclusion, the r esults of the new quantitative ultrasound device, the DTU-one, are highly c orrelated (r=0.8) with results obtained using the UBA 575+ and with BMD in the heel. The precision of the DTU-one is comparable to other QUS devices f or BUA and is high for SOS.